LIBRARY 

OF   TJHE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


GIFT  OF 


Accession  ...  Class ... 


O'HAIU  AND  His  ELEGIES, 


BY 


GEORGE  W.    RANCK, 


BALTIMORE: 
TURNBULL    BROTHERS. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1875,  by 

TURNBULL    BROTHERS, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


TO  ONE 


gift   WHS   a 


THIS    LITTLE    BOOK 


75  INSCRIBED. 


Lexington,  Ky.,  1875. 


96751 


EXTRACT   FROM    LETTER. 

NEAR  FRANKFORT,  KY.,  August  15^,  1875. 
MR.  G.  W.  RANCK, 

Dear  Friend:  ********* 
And  in  conclusion  I  have  one  request  to  make.  When  you  publish  your  tribute 
to  my  brother  Theodore,  say  that  it  is  accompanied  not  only  by  the  entire  endorse 
ment  of  his  family,  but  by  their  warmest  gratitude  and  love;  for  you  have  done 
more  than  all  others  to  cause  his  poems  to  be  properly  appreciated,  and  you  of  all 
the  world  moved  his  fellow-citizens  to  that  sacred  act  —  the  bringing  home  of  those 
dear  remains.  You  will  comply  with  my  request,  for  it  is  a  sacred  one,  and  besides 
you  would  not  have  us  to  appear  ungrateful. 

As  ever,  your  friend, 

MARY  O'HARA   PRICE. 


INDEX. 

PAGE. 

THE  BIVOUAC  'OF  THE  DEAD, 9 

THE  OLD  PIONEER, 14 

O'HARA  AND  His  ELEGIES, 19 


THE    BIVOUAC   OF    THE    DEAD, 

r  I  ^HE  muffled  drum's  sad   roll  has  beat 

The  soldier's  last  tattoo  ; 
No  more  on  life's  parade  shall  meet 

The  brave  and  daring  few. 
On  Fame's  eternal  camping-ground 

Their  silent  tents  are  spread, 
And  Glory  guards  with  solemn  round 

The  bivouac  of  the  dead. 


IO  THE    BIVOUAC    OF    THE    DEAD. 

No  answer  of  the  foe's  advance 

Now  swells  upon  the  wind  ; 
No  troubled  thought  at  midnight  haunts 

Of  loved  ones  left  behind  ; 
No  vision  of  the  morrow's  strife 

The  warrior's  dream  alarms  ; 
No  braying  horn  nor  screaming  fife 

At  dawn  shall  call  to  arms. 


Their  shivered  swords  are  red  with  rust; 

Their  plumed  heads  are  bowed  ; 
Their  haughty  banner,  trailed  in  dust, 

Is  now  their  martial  shroud  ; 
And  plenteous  funeral-tears  have  washed 

The  red  stains  from  each  brow, 
And  their  proud  forms,  in  battle  gashed, 

Are  free  from  anguish  now. 


THE    BIVOUAC    OF    THE    DEAD.  I  I 

The  neighing  steed,  the  flashing  blade, 

The  trumpet's  stirring  blast, 
The  charge,  the  dreadful  cannonade, 

The  din  and  shout,  are  past ; 
No  war's  wild  note,  nor  glory's  peal, 

Shall  thrill  with  fierce  delight 
Those  breasts  that  nevermore  shall  feel 

The  rapture  of  the  fight. 

Like  the  dread  northern  hurricane 

That  sweeps  his  broad  plateau, 
Flushed  with  the  triumph  yet  to  gain, 

Came  down  the  serried  foe. 
Our  heroes  felt  the  shock,  and  leapt 

To  meet  them  on  the  plain; 
And  long  the  pitying  sky  hath  wept 

Above  our  gallant  slain. 


I  2  THE    BIVOUAC    OF    THE    DEAD. 

Sons  of  our  consecrated  ground, 

Ye  must  not  slumber  there, 
Where  stranger  steps  and  tongues  resound 

Along  the  heedless  air. 
Your  own  proud  land's  heroic  soil 

Shall  be  your  fitter  grave  : 
She  claims  from  war  his  richest  spoil  — 

The  ashes  of  her  brave. 

So  'neath  their  parent  turf  they  rest, 

Far  from  the  gory  field  ; 
Borne  to  a  Spartan  mother's  breast 

On  many  a  bloody  shield. 
The  sunshine  of  their  native  sky 

Smiles  sadly  on  them  here, 
And  kindred  hearts  and  eyes  watch  by 

The  heroes'  sepulchre. 


THE    BIVOUAC    OF    THE    DEAD.  I  3 

Rest  on,  embalmed  and  sainted  dead  ! 

Dear  as  the  blood  you  gave, 
No  impious  footsteps  here  shall  tread 

The  herbage  of  your  grave  ; 
Nor  shall  your  glory  be  forgot 

While  fame  her  record  keeps, 
Or  honor  points  the  hallowed  spot 

VVhere  valor  proudly  sleeps. 

Yon  marble  minstrel's  voiceless  tone 

In  deathless  songs  shall  tell, 
When  many  a  vanquished  age  hath  flown, 

The  story  how  ye  fell. 
Nor  wreck,  nor  change,  or  winter's  blight, 

Nor  time's  remorseless  doom, 
Shall  dim  one  ray  of  holy  light 

That  gilds  your  glorious  tomb. 


THE   OLD    PIONEER. 

A    DIRGE  for  the  brave  old  pioneer ! 

Knight-errant  of  the  wood  ! 
Calmly  beneath  the  green  sod  here 

He  rests  from  field  and  flood  ; 
The  war-whoop  and  the  panther's  screams 

No  more  his  soul  shall  rouse, 
For  well  the  aged  hunter  dreams 
Beside  his  good  old  spouse. 


THE    OLD    PIONEER.  15 

A  dirge  for  the  brave  old  pioneer! 

Hushed  now  his  rifle's  peal  ; 
The  dews  of  many  a  vanish'd  year 

Are  on  his  rusted  steel ; 
His  horn  and  pouch  lie  moldering 

Upon  the  cabin-door ; 
The  elk  rests  by  the  salted  spring, 

Nor  flees  the  fierce  wild  boar. 


A  dirge  for  the  brave  old  pioneer  ! 

Old  Druid  of  the  West ! 
His  offering  was  the  fleet  wild  deer, 

His  shrine  the  mountain's  crest. 
Within  his  wildwood  temple's  space 

An  empire's  towers  nod. 
Where  erst,  alone  of  all  his  race, 

He  knelt  to  Nature's  God. 


1 6  THE    OLD    PIONEER. 

A  dirge  for  the  brave  old  pioneer  ! 

Columbus  of  the  land  ! 
Who  guided  freedom's  proud  career 

Beyond  the  conquer'd  strand  ; 
And  gave  her  pilgrim  sons  a  home 

No  monarch's  step  profanes, 
Free  as  the  chainless  winds  that  roam 

Upon  its  boundless  plains. 

A  dirge  for  the  brave  old  pioneer ! 

The  muffled  drum  resound  ! 
A  warrior  is  slumb'ring  here 

Beneath  his  battle-ground. 
For  not  alone  with  beast  of  prey 

The  bloody  strife  he  waged, 
Foremost  where'er  the  deadly  fray 

Of  savage  combat  raged. 


THE    OLD    PIONEER. 


A  dirge  for  the  brave  old  pioneer! 

A  dirge  for  his  old  spouse  ! 
For  her  who  blest  his  forest  cheer, 

And  kept  his  birchen  house. 
Now  soundly  by  her  chieftain  may 

The  brave  old  dame  sleep  on, 
The  red  man's  step  is  far  away, 

The  wolf's  dread  howl  is  gone. 

A  dirge  for  the  brave  old  pioneer ! 

His  pilgrimage  is  done  ; 
He  hunts  no  more  the  grizzly  bear 

About  the  setting  sun. 
Weary  at  last  of  chase  and  life, 

He  laid  him  here  to  rest, 
Nor  recks  he  now  what  sport  or  strife 

Would  tempt  him  further  west. 


I  8  THE    OLD    PIONEER. 

A  dirge  for  the  brave  old  pioneer  ! 

The  patriarch  of  his  tribe  ! 
He  sleeps  —  no  pompous  pile  marks  where, 

No  lines  his  deeds  describe. 
They  raised  no  stone  above  him  here, 

Nor  carved  his  deathless  name  —  . 
An  empire  is  his  sepulchre, 

His  epitaph  is  Fame. 


NOTE. —  The  last  stanza  of  this  ode  was  written  before  Boone's 
monument  had  been  erected. 


O'HARA   AND    HIS    ELEGIES. 

By  GEORGE  W.  RANCK. 
A    MERICA  has  as  yet  produced  but  one  elegiac  poet 

r\. 

of  acknowledged  genius,  and  that  poet  is  Theodore 
O'Hara,  author  of  "  The  Bivouac  of  the  Dead  "  and  the 
ode  to  Daniel  Boone.  The  remarkable  merit  of  these 
tender,  mournful,  but  inspiring  elegies  has  never  been 
disputed.  They  have  always  been  most  warmly  admired 
by  the  scholarly  and  the  cultivated;  have  grown  steadily 
in  public  estimation  from  the  time  they  were  penned,  and 
will  continue  to  grow  in  favor  with  the  growth  of  years. 
May  we  not  reasonably  hazard  the  prophecy  that  the  time 


2O  O'HARA  AND  HIS  ELEGIES. 

•will  come  when  O'Hara  will  occupy  the  same  place  in  our 
literature  that  is  now  held  in  the  field  of  English  letters 
by  the  celebrated  author  of  the  "  Elegy  in  a  Country 
Churchyard  "?  Feeling  that  Americans  should  know  more 
of  the  gifted  man  whose  poems  have  reflected  honor  upon 
them,  and  with  the  hope  of  increasing  the  number  of 
his  admirers,  the  writer  resolved  to  publish  this  little 
volume.  The  facts  of  the  life  of  O'Hara  were  obtained 
from  papers  and  documents  placed  in  the  hands  of  the 
writer  by  the  family  of  the  poet,  and  also  from  letters  re 
ceived  from  his  old  comrades  and  intimate  friends. 

Theodore  O'Hara  was  born  in  Danville,  Kentucky, 
February  nth,  1820.  He  was  the  son  of  Kane  O'Hara, 
an  Irish  political  exile,  noted  for  his  piety  and  learning, 
who  had  been  invited  to  Danville  to  take  charge  of  an 
academy  about  to  be  established  there  under  the  auspices 
of  Governor  Shelby.  His  ancestors  becoming  subjected 
to  the  disabilities  imposed  upon  Catholics  in  their  unhappy 
land,  abandoned  home  rather  than  religion,  emigrated 


O'HARA  AND  HIS  ELEGIES.  21 

to  this  country  with  Lord  Baltimore,  and  aided  in  founding 
that  colony  which  was  so  long  an  asylum  for  victims  of 
religious  intolerance.  The  family  removed  from  Danville 
to  Woodford  County,  where  the  father  himself  commenced 
the  education  of  his  son.  They  subsequently  settled  in 
Frankfort,  where  several  members  of  the  family  still  reside. 
Theodore  O'Hara  was  remarkable  when  but  a  child. 
Study  was  his  passion.  It  engrossed  his  entire  boyhood, 
and  added  fuel  to  the  fires  of  his  genius.  Happily,  he 
was  trained  and  appreciated  by  one  who  fully  understood 
the  nature  he  was  moulding.  His  education  was  con 
ducted  wholly  by  his  father  until  he  was  prepared  to  enter 
college,  and  then  that  ripe  scholar  had  so  thoroughly  done 
his  work  that  he  was  at  once  admitted  to  the  senior  class 
of  St.  Joseph's  Academy  at  Bardstown.  There,  among 
the  learned  clergy  of  his  church,  he  soon  became  pre 
eminent  as  a  profound  and  accomplished  scholar,  especially 
in  the  ancient  classics  ;  and  though  but  a  youth,  the  rare 
compliment  was  paid  him  of  election  to  the  professorship 


22  O'HARA  AND  HIS  ELEGIES. 

of  the  Greek  language.  He  bade  farewell  to  his  Alma  Mater 
on  graduating,  in  a  speech  so  full  of  eloquence  as  never 
to  be  forgotten  by  those  who  listened  enraptured  to  it. 
One  has  said  of  it — "It  was  the  most  perfect  address  I 
ever  heard  for  elegance  of  style,  depth  of  thought,  truth 
fulness  of  sentiment,  and  beauty  of  composition."  After 
leaving  college  he  studied  law  in  the  office  of  Judge 
Owsley,  where  he  was  a  fellow-student  of  Gen.  John  C. 
Breckinridge,  and  the  strong  attachment  there  formed 
between  the  young  men  lasted  through  all  his  subsequent 
life.  In  1845  he  held  a  position  in  the  Treasury  Depart 
ment  at  Washington,  under  Gen.  John  M.  McCalla,  but 
his  life  from  this  time  till  its  close  was  obscured  by  the 
same  dark  clouds  of  misfortune  and  disappointment  that 
seem  so  strangely  to  hang  round  the  pathway  of  genius — 
the  pressure  of  a  narrow  fortune  combined  with  the  aspira 
tion  of  a  noble  ambition  conspired  to  make  his  life  erratic. 
He  was  appointed  to  a  captaincy  in  the  "old"  United 
States  Army  when  such  a  position  was  a  sure  indication  of 


O'HARA  AND  HIS  ELEGIES.  23 

merit,  served  with  distinction  through  the  Mexican  War, 
and  was  breveted  Major  for  gallant  and  meritorious  con 
duct.  Contrary  to  modern  usage,  he  left  the  army  at  the 
close  of  the  war,  enriched  only  in  reputation,  and  imme 
diately  commenced  the  practice  of  law  in  Washington 
City,  where  he  remained  until  the  breaking  out  of  the  Cuban 
fever,  when,  with  many  other  gallant  Kentuckians,  he  em 
barked  in  that  ill-fated  enterprise.  He  commanded  one 
of  the  regiments  in  the  disastrous  battle  of  Cardenas,  and 
was  badly  wounded. 

During  the  absence  of  the  Hon.  John  Forsythe  as  min 
ister  to  Mexico.  Col.  O'Hara  conducted  the  Mobile  Register 
as  editor-in-chief,  with  signal  ability  and  success  ;  in  fact 
he  was  peculiarly  fitted  for  an  editor,  as  his  knowledge  was 
varied,  deep  and  comprehensive,  and  the  glowing  sentences 
flashed  like  jewels  from  his  gifted  pen.  He  was  subse 
quently  editor  of  the  Louisville  Times,  and  afterwards  of 
the  Frankfort  Yeoman.  He  was  frequently  called  on  by 
the  Government  to  conduct  diplomatic  negotiations  of 


24  O'HARA  AND  HIS  ELEGIES. 

importance  with  foreign  nations,  and  his  services  were 
specially  valued  in  the  Tehauntepec-Grant  business.  In 
1854,  when  the  remains  of  the  distinguished  statesman, 
Hon.  William  T.  Barry,  arrived  from  Liverpool  and  were 
re-interred  in  the  State  Cemetery  at  Frankfort,  Col.  O'Hara 
was  the  orator  of  the  occasion,  and  delivered  an  oration 
so  glowing,  so  chaste  and  appropriate,  and  so'full  of  pure 
and  lofty  eloquence,  as  to  entitle  it  to  a  place  among  the 
best  specimens  of  American  oratory. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  late  war  his  heart  swelled  with 
sympathy  for  the  people  he  had  always  loved  so  well,  and 
his  sword  was  at  once  unsheathed  in  defence  of  the  South. 
He  was  immediately  honored  with  an  important  position, 
and  soon  promoted  to  the  colonelcy  of  the  Twelfth  Ala 
bama  regiment.  He  subsequently  served  on  the  staff  of 
that  lamented  hero,  Gen.  Albert  Sidney  Johnston,  stemmed 
with  him  the  fiery  flood  of  Shiloh,  and  received  his  great 
chief  in  his  arms  when  he  fell  upon  that  ensanguined  field. 
He  was  also  chief  of  staff  to  Gen.  John  C.  Breckinridge  ; 


O  HARA    AND    HIS    ELEGIES.  2$ 

and  true  to  the  last  to  his  old  friend,  he  shared  with  him 
all  the  bitterness  of  the  last  bitter  days,  when  one  of  the 
grandest  dreams  of  modern  times  dissolved  and  ended, 
and  never  left  him  till  he  saw  him  safely  embarked  for  a 
foreign  shore.  The  close  of  this  war  also  found  him  without 
a  dollar,  but  like  thousands  of  his  comrades,  he  went  at 
once  to  work  to  retrieve  his  fortunes.  He  went  to  Columbus, 
Georgia,  and  engaged  in  the  cotton  business  with  a  relative; 
but  misfortune  again  overtook  him,  for  he  and  his  partner 
lost  all  by  fire.  Undismayed,  he  retired  to  a  plantation 
on  the  Alabama  side  of  the  Chattahoochie,  near  a  place 
called  Guerrytown,  and  there  he  was  laboring  successfully 
when  he  was  attacked  with  bilious  fever,  of  which  he  died 
Friday,  June  6,  1867.  His  latest  hours  were  cheered  by 
the  affectionate  attentions  of  devoted  relatives  and  friends. 
He  received  the  sacraments  of  his  church  from  the  hands 
of  a  pious  clergyman  ;  and  as  the  soft  Southern  breeze 
bore  to  him  the  songs  of  birds  and  the  odor  of  sweet 
flowers,  the  soldier-poet  fell  asleep  calmly,  hopefully  and 


26  O'HARA  AND  HIS  ELEGIES. 

resigned.  His  remains  were  taken  from  Barbour  County, 
Alabama,  to  Columbus,  Georgia,  and  there  buried  in  con 
secrated  ground,  where  he  slept  until  the  State  upon  which 
his  genius  had  been  reflected  proudly  claimed  his  ashes. 
In  the  summer  of  1874,  in  accordance  with  a  resolution 
of  the  Kentucky  Legislature,  all  that  was  mortal  of  the 
poet  was  brought  to  Frankfort ;  and  on  the  15th  of  Septem 
ber  of  that  year,  his  remains,  together  with  those  of  Gov 
ernors  Greenup  and  Madison,  and  several  distinguished 
officers  of  the  Mexican  War,  were  re-interred  with  appro 
priate  ceremonies  in  the  State  Cemetery.  The  last  tribute 
was  paid  by  mourning  relatives  and  friends,  by  old  com 
rades  and  State  troops,  by  the  Governor  of  the  Common 
wealth,  the  heads  of  departments  and  a  throng  of  sorrow 
ing  admirers.  The  solemn  boom  of  the  minute-gun,  and 
the  "  sad  roll  "  of  the  '•  muffled  drum,"  mingled  with  his 
funeral  dirge,  and  the  shadow  of  the  tattered  banner  under 
which  he  had  fought  on  "  Angustura's  bloody  plains " 
rested  silently  and  lovingly  upon  his  bier.  O'Hara  was 


O'HARA  AND  HIS  ELEGIES.  27 

burled  in  the  military  lot  on  the  east  side  of  the  monu 
ment  to  the  soldiers  whose  dirge  he  had  so  eloquently 
sung,  and  midway  between  that  stately  pile  and  the  tomb 
of  the  vanquisher  of  Tecumseh.  His  grave  was  wreathed 
with  evergreens  and  strewn  with  flowers,  and  over  it  the 
attendant  companies  of  the  State  Guard  fired  three  volleys 
of  musketry.  After  the  last  sad  rites  had  been  performed, 
and  during  the  delivery  of  the  funeral  oration,  Gen. 
William  Preston,  of  Lexington,  Kentucky,  said  of  O'Hara  : 
"  Having  known  Col.  O'Hara  intimately,  both  in  his  cam 
paigns  in  Mexico  and  in  the  South  ;  having  enjoyed  the 
pleasures  that  his  cultivated  mind  and  genial  temper  gave 
to  the  camp-fire  or  the  march;  having  witnessed  his 
brilliant  courage  and  quick  discernment  in  battle;  having 
seen  him  in  the  defiles  of  Mexico,  by  the  side  of  Sidney 
Johnston  in  his  dying  moments  at  Shiloh,  and  with  Breck- 
inridge  in  his  charge  at  Stone  River ;  I  here,  in  this 
solemn  moment,  can  sincerely  say  that  I  believe  no 
braver  heart  will  rest  beneath  this  consecrated  sod,  and 


28 


O  KARA    AND    HIS    ELEGIES. 


no  spirit  more  knightly  or  humane  ever  lingered  under 
the  shadow  of  yonder  monument."  The  obsequies  closed 
with  the  reading  of  ''•  The  Bivouac  of  the  Dead  "  by 
Henry  T.  Stanton,  who  prefaced  the  reading  with  the 
apposite  remark  that  "  O'Hara,  in  giving  utterance  to  this 
song,  became  at  once  the  builder  of  his  own  monument 
and  the  author  of  his  own  epitaph."  It  was  meet  and 
well  that  a  Kentucky  soldier  and  a  Kentucky  poet  should 
mingle  the  laurel  with  the  cypress  at  the  grave  of  the  im 
mortal  soldier-poet  of  Kentucky. 

O'Hara  was  never  married.  In  personal  appearance  he 
was  strikingly  handsome.  He  was  not  quite  six  feet  in 
height,  very  graceful  and  erect  in  his  carriage,  and  scrupu 
lously  neat  in  his  dress.  His  face  beamed  with  generous 
feeling;  his  dark  hazel  eyes  kindled  with  soul  and  ex 
pression,  and  "  were  filled  with  a  light  like  that  which 
comes  down  to  us  from  the  stars."  His  whole  personnel 
indicated  a  refinement  that  sat  upon  him  like  a  birthright. 
Another  has  said  of  him  : — "  His  soul  was  all  chivalry 


O'HARA  AND  HIS  ELEGIES.  29 

and  honor,  his  heart  all  aglow  with  generous  impulse,  and 
his  brain  trained  by  discipline  and  stored  with  rich  and 
varied  learning.  To  his  friends  his  society  was  a  con 
tinual  feast,  where  his  solid  acquirements  were  garnished 
with  the  graces  of  true  poetry  and  the  delicacy  of  true  wit. 
He  was  indeed  a  charming  companion.  True  and  unsel 
fish,  talented  and  brave  ;  tried  by  adversity  and  prosperity, 
yet  ever  found  unfaltering  in  his  honor,  he  is  gone  crowned 
with  the  commendations  of  all  who  knew  him."  O'Hara 
was  indeed  tried  by  adversity,  and  his  great  heart  and  re 
fined  nature  made  him  doubly  susceptible  of  the  pain  and 
suffering  that  the  vicissitudes  of  life  heaped  upon  him. 
Like  Chatterton,  he  tasted  the  dregs  of  a  bitter  cup  ;  but 
unlike  that  marvellous  but  ill-fated  genius,  he  met  his  trials 
like  a  brave  man  and  died  with  his  armor  on. 

The  political  essays,  public  addresses  and  literary  com 
positions  of  O'Hara  would  fill  a  volume,  for  he  was  a 
ready  and  prolific  writer;  but  his  fame  rests  upon  his 
elegies.  It  is  as  a  poet  that  O'Hara  is  known  and  cele- 


I  UNIVERSITY 

OF 


3°  O'HARA  AND  HIS  ELEGIES. 

brated  ;  and  who  will  deny  him  that  exalted  name  after 
reading  his  inspired  verses  ?  That  one  great  lyric,  "  The 
Bivouac  of  the  Dead,"  would  alone  have  made  his  name 
immortal.  It  is  his  masterpiece.  As  "  The  Raven  " 
stands  apart  and  above  all  the  writings  of  Foe,  so  is 
this  pcem,  compared  with  all  that  O'Hara  ever  wrote.  It 
was  written  in  August,  1847,  for  the  dedication  of  the 
chaste  and  beautiful  military  monument  erected  in  the 
State  Cemetery  at  Frankfort,  to  the  memory  of  the  gallant 
Kentuckians  who  fell  in  the  Mexican  War.  Col.  O'Hara 
was  at  that  time  editor  of  the  Frankfort  Yeoman.  This 
poem  has  all  the  mournful  melody  which  belongs  to  that 
sad  and  beautiful  requiem,  by  the  unfortunate  William 
Collins,  entitled  "  How  Sleep  the  Brave,"  while  as  a 
martial  elegy  it  even  surpasses  the  famous  stanzas  by 
Charles  Wolfe  on  "  The  Burial  of  Sir  John  Moore."  The 
artistic  execution  of  this  ode  is  almost  faultless  •  but  it  is 
when  we  look  at  it  in  the  light  of  those  higher  qualities 
which  constitute  the  excellence  of  all  true  poetry  that  we 


O'HARA  AND  HIS  ELEGIES.  3  I 

fully  comprehend  its  merit  and  power.  In  the  perfect 
harmony  of  the  spirit  and  tone  of  his  verse  with  his  theme  ; 
in  the  perfect  adaptation  of  his  style  to  his  subject,  and  in 
the  moving  and  solemn  accord  of  the  measure  of  his  own 
spirit  with  that  of  his  verse,  these  lines  of  O'Hara  are 
unsurpassed.  The  soul  of  the  writer  moves  and  sings 
with  the  soul  of  his  subject.  Indeed,  he  times  his  verse 
not  only  to  the  martial  measure,  but  to  the  solemn  spirit- 
tread  with  which  we  would  imagine  his  fellow-heroes  to 
march  "o'er  Fame's  eternal  camping-ground."  The 
heroic  yet  mournful  and  mysterious  beating  of  the  feet  of 
the  song  seems  the  same  as  that  of  "glory,"  as  "  with 
solemn  round  "  she  "  guards  " — 

"  The  bivouac  of  the  dead." 

In  this  perfect  harmony  of  spirit,  style  and  subject,  and  in 
this  tuneful  accord  of  the  spirit  of  the  writer  with  that  of 
his  theme,  this  piece  is  fully  equal  to  Longfellow's  "  Psalm 
of  Life."  But  there  is  a  second  quality  in  which  it  far 


32  O  KARA    AND    HIS    ELEGIES. 

surpasses  that  moral-heroic  production,  and  it  consists- in 
that  power  peculiar  to  some  poets  of  reaching  out  and 
touching  the  borders  of  the  unseen.  This  quality  is  de 
veloped  by  Longfellow  in  those  more  than  beautiful  lines 
"  The  Footsteps  of  the  Angels  ;"  but  in  this  O'Hara  far 
transcends  him.  Longfellow  invites  the  dwellers  of  the 
spirit-realm  into  our  homes  and  <:  lays  their  angel  hands  in 
ours;"  but  moved  by  the  breath  of  eternal  song,  the  blos 
soms  of  O'Hara's  soul  not  only  bend  and  blow  toward  that 
mystic  and  shadowy  land,  but  he  visits  himself  the  dwell 
ing-place  of  spirits,  lives  and  moves  among  their  shining 
legions,  and  opens  to  us  the  gates  of  the  unseen  world,  that 
we  too  may  look  again  upon  those  once  familiar  "  proud 
forms  "  and  "  plumed  heads."  This  is  the  difference  which 
exists  between  the  heroic  and  the  tender,  and  this  gives  to 
"  The  Bivouac  of  the  Dead  "  its  solemn  majesty  and  sub 
lime  beauty.  This  poem  possesses  a  touch  of  another 
quality  which  gives  to  poetry  its  loftiest  elevation.  It  is 
not  outwardly  developed  by  any  word  or  figure,  but  in  the 


O  KARA    AND    HIS    ELEGIES. 


33 


first  few  stanzas  of  the  ode  a  sympathetic  reader  will  find 
himself  inhaling  that  peculiar,  sad  and  solemn  atmosphere 
of  prophecy  which  most  strangely  and  mournfully  hangs 
about  the  spirits  of  some  of  the  gifted  of  earth.  The 
nature  of  the  soul  and  song  of  the  writer  seems  to  be 
attuned  so  exactly  to  that  of  the  departed  heroes  of  whom 
he  sings,  that  behind  the  martial  measure  of  his  verse 
there  seems  to  move  a  muffled  fate  which  whispers  that 
their  home  will  soon  be  his.  The  combination  which 
this  production  contains  of  spirit-reach  and  spirit-pre 
science  is  the  highest,  strangest  and  most  solemn  gift  a 
poet  may  possess.  Genius  has  truly  breathed  immortal 
life  into  these  lines,  and  they  will  live  when  many  of  the 
fading,  dying  things  that  now  are  seen  in  American  liter 
ature  shall  have  passed  away  forever.  If  it  had  no  other 
claim  upon  life  than  the  sublimely  beautiful  metaphor  in 
the  first  stanza,  that  alone  would  preserve  it  through  the 
ages.  Where,  in  the  English  language,  is  there  a  bolder, 
grander  or  loftier  conception  than  that  in  which  our  de- 


34  O'HARA  AND  HIS  ELEGIES. 

parted  heroes  are  represented  as  encamped  on  the  vast 
and  illimitable  plains  of  immortality,  while  the  guardian 
spirit  of  the  mighty  host  watches  with  ceaseless  and  un 
tiring  vigilance  over  the  shadowy  inhabitants  of  those 
silent  tents  ?  The  hold  of  this  elegy  upon  the  popular 
heart  grows  stronger  and  more  enduring.  It  is  creeping 
into  every  scrap-book  j  it  is  continually  quoted  upon  public 
occasions.  Every  year  or  two  it  makes  the  round  of  the 
American  press,  and  recently  it  has  excited  enthusiastic 
admiration  in  England.  One  stanza  of  it  was  inscribed 
upon  a  rude  memorial  nailed  to  a  tree  upon  the  battle 
field  of  Chancellorsville  ;  another  was  engraved  upon  a 
military  monument  at  Boston,  Mass.,  and  still  another 
adorns  a  memorial  column  that  marks  the  place  where 
occurred  one  of  the  most  bloody  contests  of  the  Crimean 
war.  It  will  gain  the  high  place  in  literature  that  it  merits, 
and  there  it  will  remain. 

Next  to   his  masterpiece  comes  the  simple  but  noble 
tribute  penned  by  O'Hara  at  the  grave  of  Daniel   Boone. 


O'HARA  AND  HIS  ELEGIES.  35 

These  are  the  only  verses  the  writer  has  ever  seen  that 
did  justice  to  the  "old  Druid  of  the  West,"  and  we  love 
the  brave  hunter  more  than  ever,  and  appreciate  his  big 
honest  heart,  his  undaunted  spirit,  and  the  grandeur  of  his 
mission  tenfold  more  after  reading  them.  In  Canto 
VIII.  of  Don  Juan  Byron  introduces  a  number  of  stanzas 
descriptive  of  Boone  and  his  backwoods  life  ;  but  with  all 
his  poetic  power,  even  the  bard  of  Newstead  Abbey,  on  this 
field  at  least,- must  lower  his  plume  to  O'Hara.  It  is  true 
that  both  the  measure  and  the  style  of  the  stanzas  com 
pared  are  different ;  but  in  that  which  both  attempt  —  a  de 
lineation  of  the  simple  rugged  nature  of  the  man  and 
his  wildwood  home,  Lord  Byron  has  not  met  with  the 
success  of  O'Hara.  The  sad  notes  of  this  sweet  and 
solemn  dirge  will  float  and  linger  with  undying  cadence  for 
generations  to  come,  around  the  name  of  Daniel  Boone, 
"  the  Columbus  of  the  land." 

"Who  guided  freedom's  proud  career 
Beyond  the  conquered  strand." 


36  O'HARA  AND  HIS  ELEGIES. 

His  deeds,  his  frank  and  honest  character,  his  fearless 
heart  and  romantic  and  providential  life,  cannot  be  for 
gotten  while  these  stanzas  live.  The  children  of  our 
children's  children  will  read  them,  and  see  in  fancy 

"  His  horn  and  pouch  lie  moldering 
Upon  the  cabin  door," 

and  will  realise  that  the  conqueror  of  the  wilderness 

"  Hunts  no  more  the  grizzly  bear 
About  the  setting  sun." 

But  this  poem  is  not  only  a  tender  dirge,  it  is  an  ele 
vated,  glowing,  and  inspiring  paean  of  praise  —  a  grand 
anthem  to  celebrate  the  glory,  the  mystery,  and  the 
majesty  of  Nature.  It  carries  the  reader  back  to  the  dark 
ling  woods  which  Boone  saw  in  all  their  solitary  and 
primeval  splendor,  when  the  fleet  wild  deer  was  his  sacri 
fice,  the  mountain's  crest  his  altar,  and 

"  Where  erst,  alone  of  all  his  race, 
He  knelt  to  Nature's  God." 


O'HARA  AND  HIS  ELEGIES.  37 

No  wonder  that  Byron,  with  all  his  genius,  failed  to 
come  fully  up  to  this  subject.  He  only  could  do  justice 
to  "the  brave  old  pioneer  "  who  lived  where  he  had  lived  ; 
who  breathed  the  air  that  he  had  breathed  ;  whose  eyes 
and  soul  had  drunk  in  the  natural  beauties  of  Boone's  old 
Kentucky  home,  and  who  had  roamed  amid  the  very 
scenes  where  once  the  war-whoop  and  the  panther's  scream 
had  thrilled  the  old  hunter's  heart.  It  was  left  to  O'Hara, 
who  was  borri  and  reared  in  the  home  of  Boone,  to  con 
ceive  the  lofty  imagery,  and  sing  the  tender  and  melan 
choly  sentiment,  of  this  poem.  Need  one  apologise  for 
the  State  pride  which  points  to  it  as  a  poem  peculiarly  and 
absolutely  Kentuckian  ?  The  Marseillaise  Hymn  is  not 
more  distinctly  a  French  production  than  is  this  poem  a 
child  of  Kentucky.  If  it  is  true  —  as  has  been  repeatedly 
asserted,  and  as  this  elegy  strongly  indicates  —  that  the 
growth  and  quality  of  the  literature  of  a  people  are  largely 
influenced  and  dependent  upon  their  natural  surround 
ings,  may  we  not  reasonably  hope  much  from  the  future 


38  O'HARA  AND  HIS  ELEGIES. 

of  a  State  so  blessed  in  physical  charms  and  character 
istics  as  the  "  Dark  and  Bloody  Ground  "  ?  Who  will  say 
that  the  free,  fresh  air,  the  rugged  scenery,  and  the  inspir 
ing  associations  of  old  Scotia  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
development  of  the  genius  of  Sir  Walter  Scott  ?  Could 
Rob  Roy  and  the  Heart  of  Mid  Lothian,  could  Marmion 
and  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel  ever  have  been  written 
but  by  a  native  and  lover  of  the  land  they  depicted  ?  No  : 
their  author  could  only  have  been  one  who  had  roamed 
her  lonely  moors  and  trod  her  fragrant  heather ;  who  loved 
her  gray  old  rocks  and  beetling  crags ;  who  had  heard  the 
roar  of  the  cataract  in  her  romantic  glens  and  the  scream 
of  the  eagle  in  her  mountain  fastnesses,  and  whose  soul 
had  been  stirred  by  the  weird  music  of  the  moaning  pines 
that  stand  like  sentinels  upon  the  shores  of  her  beautiful 
lakes.  If  scenes  like  these  foster  and  develop  genius,  then 
we  can  understand  one  at  least  of  the  elements  that  have 
entered  into  the  creation  of  the  orators  and  soldiers  of 
this  most  picturesque  old  Commonwealth,  and  we  may 


O'HARA  AND  HIS  ELEGIES.  39 

reasonably  expect  her  to  be  the  cradle  of  illustrious  poets 
also.  The  Highlands  of  Scotland  are  not  more  wildly 
beautiful  than  the  mountain  regions  of  Kentucky.  Her 
Blue  Grass  lands  are  as  lovely  and  more  fertile  than  the 
Campagna  of  Italy.  Her  forests  in  autumn  are  galleries 
of  Nature's  own  most  glorious  handiwork.  The  sublimity 
of  her  vast,  silent,  and  awe-inspiring  caves  is  recognised 
the  wide  world  over ;  and  that  most  picturesque  of  rivers, 
the  Kentucky,  with  its  towering  cliffs  and  wooded  heights, 
its  rugged  bed,  shadowy  shores,  and  miniature  cascades, 
and  its  bold  and  hoary  old  rocks,  crowned  with  feathery 
ferns,  decked  with  beautiful  mosses,  and  wrapped  in  fan 
tastic  vines,  needs  but  ruined  castles  and  crumbling  battle 
ments  to  make  it  far  outvie  the  vaunted  river  Rhine.  It 
was  amid  these  triumphs  of  Nature's  power  that  Theodore 
O'Hara  was  born  ;  at  the  shrine  of  Kentucky  scenery  he 
worshipped  like  an  Eastern  idolater,  and  his  ode  to  Boone 
was  the  natural  result.  It  is  more  —  it  is  a  prophecy  of 
Kentucky's  literary  future  ;  and  O'Hara  is  the  forerunner 


40  O'HARA  AND  HIS  ELEGIES. 

of  a  line  of  poets  who  are  destined  to  shed  unfading  lustre 
upon  her. 

Theodore  O'Hara  sleeps  his  last  sleep  by  the  side  of 
his  old  comrades,  under  the  shadow  of  the  monument 
erected  in  their  honor,  and  amid  the  scenes  consecrated 
by  his  genius.  It^is  well :  for  that  beautiful  spot  was  his 
favorite  haunt,  he  loved  its  soothing  solitude  ;  it  was  there 
that  the  harp-strings  of  his  soul  first  gave  forth  their  sad 
but  immortal  notes,  and  it  seems  fitted  by  Nature  for  a 
poet's  tomb.  In  death  as  in  life,  he  seems  the  twin 
brother  of  Gray,  the  author  of  that  exquisite  emanation, 
the  "  Elegy  in  a  Country  Churchyard."  Both  were  elegiac 
poets  of  wonderfully  similar  attainments  and  habits  ;  both 
established  their  fame  upon  two  or  three  short  but  finished 
productions,  and  both  sleep  at  last  amid  the  scenes  and 
near  the  objects  clothed  with  the  glory  of  their  inspiration. 
Gray  slumbers  in  sight  of  the  "  antique  towers"  of  Eton 
College,  whose  praises  he  sung,  and  in  that  churchyard 
where  6ft  "  the  curfew  tolled  the  knell  of  parting  day." 


O'HARA  AND  HIS  ELEGIES.  41 

O'Hara  reposes  in  sight  of  the  tomb  of  the  "brave  old 
Pioneer  "  whose  deathless  dirge  he  sung,  and  in  that  cem 
etery  where  sleep  the  warriors  whose  requiem  he  chaunted, 
and  where 

"  Glory,  guards  with  solemn  round 
Tfi'e  bivouac  of  the  dead.'1 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


FOURTEEN  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

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